Stronger After All IV: Easier to Run
by The Old Rycr
Summary: [NON CANON ONESHOT] This takes place during the original Stronger After All IV: Betrayal. Without Ulrich, Chelsea is depressed and angry, and begins to run to gain some control over her emotions. Lyokolady started rewriting SAA, so this is noncanon now.


_Okay, this is a spin-off songfic of **Stronger After All IV: Betrayal**by **lyokolady**. If you haven't read her series yet, you're really missing out!_

_Anyway, in order to understand this, you have to read her stories up to the part of the fourth story when Ulrich makes the deal. For those of you who have read it, you know exactly what I'm talking about._

_**Disclaimer:** I don't own Code Lyoko, and I don't own Chelsea or the basic storyline. Moonscoop or Antefilms or whatever owns CL, and lyokolady owns the rest. I also don't own "Easier to Run" by Linkin Park._

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_Stronger After All IV: Easier to Run_

* * *

Chelsea stood at the edge of the track on a windy autumn morning. She stared vaguely off into space, and a single tear fell from her eye.

She sniffed, wiped away the tear, and began to sprint around the track

_**It's easier to run  
**__**Replacing this pain with something numb  
**__**It's so much easier to go  
**__**Than face all this pain here all alone**_

She could feel the burning claws of anger settling into her heart. Her shock at the sudden turn in events had finally worn off, and her anger was threatening to break through.

So, she ran.

**_Something has been taken  
_****_From deep inside of me  
_****_The secret I've kept locked away  
_****_No one can ever see  
_****_Wounds so deep they never show  
_****_They never go away  
_**_**Like moving pictures in my head  
**_**_For years and years they've played_**

She remembered, as if it was yesterday, all of her friends dying in front of her, on a day that never happened, that nobody remembers.

Except for the six…now five…

_**If I could change I would take back the pain I would  
**__**Retrace every wrong move that I made I would  
**__**If I could stand up and take the blame I would  
**__**If I could take all the shame to the grave I would  
**__**If I could change I would take back the pain I would  
**__**Retrace every wrong move that I made I would  
**__**If I could stand up and take the blame I would  
**__**I would take all my shame to the grave**_

She imagined that the surface of the track was XANA, and his "pact" with Ulrich. She dug her feet in further.

Then, her anger slowly began to dissipate. Every time her anger threatened to explode, she would find an open space and run.

She would run on and on, until her anger dissolved like the last wisps of a fog after the sun comes out.

_**It's easier to run  
**__**Replacing this pain with something numb  
**__**It's so much easier to go  
**__**Than face all this pain here all alone**_

The pain in her heart was not just anger. If it was, she would have run it off long ago. No, there was another emotion…

Sadness filled her heart, her entire being. She felt more tears begin to fall as she sped up, feeling the cool breeze touch her skin, contrasting with the numbness that she was finally beginning to feel inside.

**_Sometimes I remember  
_****_The darkness of my past  
_****_Bringing back these memories  
_**_**I wish I didn't have  
**_**_Sometimes I think of letting go  
_****_And never looking back  
_****_And never moving forward so  
_****_There'd never be a past_**

Why had Ulrich chosen to team up with…with XANA? Why had he betrayed everybody? Only he, and maybe XANA, would know the answer, and neither of them were likely to tell.

She wished that it was as easily undone as his death had been. But he had died in a different way. He was the only one who could resurrect himself, but she had seen that he wouldn't.

_**If I could change I would take back the pain I would  
**__**Retrace every wrong move that I made I would  
**__**If I could stand up and take the blame I would  
**__**If I could take all the shame to the grave I would  
**__**If I could change I would take back the pain I would  
**__**Retrace every wrong move that I made I would  
**__**If I could stand up and take the blame I would  
**__**I would take all my shame to the grave**_

The last of the anger was gone, and her sadness began to slowly drip away. Her tears began to slow and eventually stop falling. She looked content, but there was still a raging turmoil in her heart, buried so deep that nobody could see it.

_**Just washing it aside  
**__**All of the helplessness inside  
**__**Pretending I don't feel misplaced  
**__**It's so much simpler than change**_

She began to slow down, her anger and sadness had appeared to stop consuming her, but those who really knew her could tell that she was barely happier than when she had began.

But she now had control. Her temper was within her grasp. She sat down on a bench, letting a few more tears drip from her eyes. These would be the last for the rest of the day.

_**It's easier to run  
**__**Replacing this pain with something numb  
**__**It's so much easier to go  
**__**Than face all this pain here all alone**_

She faced her two problems, one of them infinitely more important, but both would drastically affect her life.

First, Ulrich. He was the most important problem. He had made a pact with XANA, and was now working on destroying the gang once and for all.

She had no idea how to solve the problem, to bring him back to her. He would have to deal with it himself, assuming his soul was still there somewhere, crushed under XANA's hold, but still alive. If XANA had destroyed it completely, then he would not return.

_**It's easier to run...  
**__**If I could change I would take back the pain I would  
**__**Retrace every wrong move that I made**_

Not only that, but she was also going to move! She wouldn't even be able to see Ulrich come back. He would definitely come back. She couldn't doubt it for a second, or she would lose all hope.

She stood up and shook her head. She was filled with anger and sadness again, so she turned to her only consolation.

_**It's easier to go...  
**__**If I could change I would take back the pain I would  
**__**Retrace every wrong move that I made I would  
**__**If I could stand up and take the blame I would  
**__**I would take all my shame to the grave**_

She ran…

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_So? Is it good? If you read this and you still haven't read **lyokolady**'s series, **Stronger After All **yet, go read it now! It is one of the best Code Lyoko fanfics that I've ever read!_

_**UPDATE:** For those of you reading my **Living Up To A Legend** series, I'll upload chapter 10 sometime this weekend._

_Rycr_


End file.
